Kelowna Artist Approaches 5-Year Milestone with Special Song
We’ve all heard the expression “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” A Kelowna artist is doing just that, as he releases a special milestone song January 6.
In 2021, singer-songwriter Jamesy The True was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. His thyroid was so full of cancer that he had to have the entire gland surgically removed. It was a rough year.
Fast forward to early 2026, Jamesy - now almost five-years cancer-free - is releasing a song about making metaphorical lemonade in the face of adversity. But the composition features a bit of a twist. It’s a playful song for a friend - a woman he met right around the time he beat cancer in 2021 (beat it with the help of an amazing surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurses, of course). This friend was the Muse who inspired him to embrace life playfully in the face of the biggest challenges and curve balls thrown at you.
The song is called “Janina Today,” and it features the opening lyrics “We’re making love out of lemons, out here on rough ride avenue, we’re hell on wheels on a gravel road, my friend, while the radio’s deep in the blues.”
“Since I’m coming up on the five year anniversary of that leg of the journey,” Jamesy explains, “I wanted to celebrate my friend and that victory, that small miracle. This song is about finding joy in the middle of hard times. Sometimes a smile from someone you care about - or even from a stranger - can bring comfort. I hope this song is a fun dose of optimism I can give to others who are going through tough times.”
The song is available at JamesyTheTrue.com and across all platforms. A lyric video is available on Jamesy’s YouTube channel. Jamesy cites Terry Fox as his idol and encourages music fans to support the Terry Fox Foundation and all those fighting the good fight.
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Media: Front Cover attached. For more information or to request an interview, contact Jamesy at 778-350-0049 or etherandbones@gmail.com
SIMPLE DELIGHT
Kelowna Courier article on Jamesy The True
Jamesy The True and The Old Country Barn
Music Review & Interview by Leah Callen
Recently, I spent some time by the seashore with Jamesy The True — folk singer-songwriter who has spent most of his life based in British Columbia. We talked about break-ups, Keats, and the Wizard of Oz over coffee as the wind whipped by. And I got to hold his harmonica.
At first, Jamesy was a bit enigmatic and guarded. As film buffs, we talked about Hitchcock on our way to the sea, past cherry trees blushing in the sun. I joked that if I asked the wrong questions, he could push me off the cliff. That broke the ice. We chatted on a weatherworn bench as a woman carved tai chi into the air on the opposite cliff.
A small boy wandered down the wild path to the water as Jamesy talked about growing up in the small town of Ucluelet “with country music in my house all the time...I heard a lot of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and Kenny Rogers.” Jamesy wanted to be a singer-songwriter when he first heard the song “Try” by Blue Rodeo at seventeen.
“I was a pretty conservative and quiet kid, and then when I was twenty-one, I moved into a house in Victoria and the landlord happened to be a guitar player (and enjoyed his beverages), and so I was introduced to making music.”
In the years that lapped by afterward, Jamesy's duo was one of multiple opening acts for the legendary Ray Charles at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in1998, and as a solo act, Jamesy toured and recorded with two members of Blue Rodeo: their original keyboard player Bob Wiseman, and their long-time multi-instrumentalist Bob Egan (whose lap steel is featured on Jamesy’s song “Cars”).
Jamesy opened up about songwriting, saying “my songs come in waves, they all come at once because of one muse or situation and I just keep rolling with it until the inspiration fades out.”
As a song sparrow serenaded us, he mused that songwriting is “a way of taking the experience and putting it in a box, instead of having it looming over you like a dark cloud.”
He took a sip from his wind-chilled Americano. “And then it takes on a life of its own and it becomes this creative work instead of an experience that is consuming you in a counter-productive way.”
His song "The Old-Fashioned Way" aches for a chivalry and authenticity of spirit that seems fleeting in our shallow twenty-first century storybook.
In this song, Jamesy pines “I want to dance with you under an 1820-something moon,” and I wonder if that has anything to do with the love letters poet John Keats once sweat out for Fanny Brawne, which Jamesy mentioned to me as a seal surfaced below in the seafoam. Keats is a poet he admires, as is Rumi.
I asked him if he always anticipates the goodbye when he’s first saying hello, since so many of his songs are about the winters in relationships. He seemed struck by that, but it may just be the common frustration of a romantic soul with the short term characters who have crossed his path.
Jamesy’s candor was touching. “Relationships are complicated,” he shared. “If something is a completely Pollyanna vision of romanticism, that can be a little bit over the top in a song and it’s not as effective because it doesn’t seem as real or relatable.”
His songs swing back and forth like a whiskey-soaked waltz: some have the bitter edge of a Romeo who has seen Juliet throw away his roses; others soak you with sweet nostalgia. He says his cover of “Over the Rainbow” is meant to be “Disney meets the Twilight Zone,” an awesome, unexpected mix that’s surprisingly soothing.
If Leonard Cohen and Chris Isaak were melted into one man who had grown up in a Western film, that would be Jamesy The True.
After we chatted, he “noodled” on the harmonica and it was amazing how many sounds came out of that chocolate-bar-sized contraption. I pictured everything from a train speeding across the countryside to an accordion player in the French Quarter to an excited honeybee. Oh, and I got to hold the harmonica, which was a first for me.
I confess I enjoy singing back-up, on my own in my car, on the chorus of Jamesy's song “Driven," where his vocal colour particularly reminds me of Chris Isaak on the high notes.
Jamesy's song “The Felon” tugged at something tender inside with its plea: “don’t say the words you’re thinking of; just say you won’t forsake this love.” His lyrics are unabashedly passionate, yet honest in their pain. It’s refreshing. He doesn’t shy away from the darkness or the light, but realizes they need each other for the music to be True. Only a romantic gets this.
Jamesy has a rich vocal range, his high notes often plaintive and haunting, while his resonant, lower lines could lure a she-wolf out of her den. His instruments intensify the sound; guitar strings ache along to his higher register and a harmonica lets out a hungry growl.
A listener can’t help feeling like an old country barn stroked tenderly by a fresh paintbrush of song.
- Leah Callen
Media Quotes about Jamesy the True's music:
“Jamesy The True is an artistic triple threat.” - CBC Radio, Daybreak North.
"Haunting vocals. Strong Songwriting." - Monday Magazine
"Layer upon layer of rootsy goodness." - 101.9 FM CFUV Radio
"The burning wail of the harmonica and smouldering lyrics help to distinguish Jamesy the True from the thousands of others in the folk-roots genre." - exclaim! magazine
October 6, 2022: New Single + Radio Airplay in Toronto, Guelph, and Baltimore!
Hello there, Jamesy the True Supporter - So glad you stopped by.
Good news: Our brand new single is out now - give it a spin on the home page of this site. It's called "Providence and Pretty Things" and it's our latest attempt at creating a "pure love song" with as little cynicism and dark edges as possible (:
Also, a big thanks to Carol B and the Ruby Slippers program on 89.5FM CIUT in Toronto for spinning our track "The Tenderness" in September - the program also airs at 93.3 CFRU Radio in Guelph ON and at Radio Crown in Baltimore MD.
I highly recommend the Ruby Slippers show - super eclectic, and you are sure to discover great artists you may not have heard before.
For anyone reading this, I hope you are happy and healthy and enjoying a graceful transition into Autumn.
- Jamesy,
June 15, 2022: Snow and the Apple Tree in Top 10 at 90.9 CJSW in Calgary
The new Jamesy the True album Snow and the Apple Tree entered 90.9 CJSW's Folk/Roots/Blues Top 10 chart May 3, charting at #5. Two weeks later it charted at #7. A week after that, it landed at #6, and then on June 7, the album made its way up to #4. Big Thanks to CJSW & its wonderful programmers/hosts!
May 24, 2022: 90.9 CJSW Radio in Calgary Spinning 'Snow'
The popular University of Calgary radio station 90.9 CJSW has been kind to Jamesy the True in April and May, spinning tracks from the new album Snow and the Apple Tree on their programs Alternative To What, The Good Medicine Show, At The Crossroads, Free Verse, and The Avant Garage. All of these shows are purveyors of Canadian and worldwide roots music, and they can all be heard at cjsw.com Please support them the way they support emerging roots artists like Jamesy the True!
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Album Review of Snow and the Apple Tree by Canadian Beats Media
Writer: Cory Stumpf, April 25, 2022
"Here is a rather poignant concept release from BC artist ether and bones. Snow and the Apple Tree is somewhat stripped down in style, but charmingly so, its soft-spoken vocals and folk cadences constructed in a way that accentuates the spirit of the story being told. And that story is truly heartbreaking. Based on the real-life experience of Linda Bishop and subsequent documentary God Knows Where I Am, it is a touching and tragic tale of dwindling physical and mental health in the context of homelessness, in this case, re-adapted to be set to music.
Though the release is short, it sure is impactful. Only a few songs are fully realized in length and lyrical content, the highlights of those being the titular track for its initial presentation of the theme and sound, and “Hiding Away (Linda waits for Steve)” for its well-emoted vocals at a crucial point within the timeline and musical progression. Other tracks are tone-setting instrumentals like the orchestral-feeling “Running Out of Apples,” as well as interspersed, spoken journal entries written by the focal character that strikingly weave and advance the overall narrative.
As a whole, Snow and the Apple Tree is terribly sad but powerful, and a thoughtful tribute to a woman whose end is but a variation of those encountered by many members of a marginalized population too regularly discounted and forgotten. It is a reminder that those who struggle most simply to survive are less fortunate versions of anyone, each with their own unique set of lived events characterized by complex thoughts, deep sensations, and individual trials that some are sadly given little opportunity to overcome. At the very least, they might be remembered with compassion, and Jamesy the True does well to do this by acknowledging and celebrating beautiful souls like Linda Bishop."
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BC songwriter shines light on New Hampshire woman’s heartbreaking true story
When BC singer-songwriter Jamesy the True watched the 2016 documentary film God Knows Where I Am (Wider Film Projects) on Netflix for the first time (and in the four or five viewings since then), he found it equally disturbing and fascinating. The film inspired him to write and record his new album Snow and the Apple Tree, which he releases this week.
The film that provided the inspiration for the 2022 recording tells the heart-breaking true story of New Hampshire woman Linda Bishop.
What happened to her?
The short answer is that she starved to death in an abandoned house in Concord, New Hampshire in early 2008. The answer that does her more justice is much more complex and nuanced. Bishop was living in a mental health facility, struggling with bipolar disorder with psychosis, but she adamantly insisted she did not have a mental illness. In addition, she did not want any of her relatives on her notification protocols, so when she was released in October of 2007, none of her relatives or friends knew. Upon release, Bishop wandered through a semi-rural area of Concord until coming upon an empty house. She gained entry through an unlocked window, and stayed at the house for months through a particularly unforgiving New Hampshire winter. She survived on apples from the nearby apple tree, rain water, and water from the melted snow. Every day she wrote in her journal.
After Jamesy let the story brew in his mind for a few years, the catalyst for writing music about it was an unexpected one. From the summer of 2020 to the autumn of 2021, Jamesy went through the most difficult period of his own life - first enduring severe harassment which put his entire family through hell, and then months later being diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
It’s amazing what the most challenging life circumstances can do to inspire the artistically-inclined.
After revisiting God Knows Where I Am, almost as a way of healing from his own difficult times, and pondering Linda Bishop’s story once again, Jamesy’s creative juices started flowing, and out came the song “Snow and the Apple Tree,” which would later become the title track for the album of music inspired by the documentary film and Linda Bishop’s story.
In addition to Jamesy’s ethereal vocals, eclectic songwriting, minimalist guitar strumming, and outside-the-box harmonica texturing, the 12-track, 24-minute album also features musical friends from across BC and Alberta, including cellist Larry Burke from Victoria, steel guitarist Ted Pilkington from Chilliwack, fiddler Terry Lawson from Edmonton, lead guitarist Michael Huston from Calgary, and bassist Tony Horlor from Parksville. Musically, the album tells Linda Bishop’s story across a kind of tapestry, through descriptive lyrics, empathetic vocals, cinematic instrumentals, and even a few short audio clips from the film, delivered by voice actor Lori Singer, who emotively reads Linda Bishop’s journals in the documentary.
Some may say that, despite the heartbreaking challenges we all endure, everything happens for a reason, and God - somehow - has a plan for us all. And sometimes that plan snowballs all the way into someone else’s path.